KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A developer from Indiana wants $750,000 in city money to help build 100 affordable apartments on Lovell Road near Turkey Creek, and Knoxville City Council is scheduled to decide on Oct. 27.
The Annex Group calls the project Union at Smoky Mountains. Plans place it at 360 Lovell Road, on the south side of Interstate 40 close to the Turkey Creek shopping area. Knox County planning records put the site on two parcels covering 2.32 acres.
The request would come out of the city’s Affordable Rental Development Fund. The full project carries a price tag of roughly $38 million, and planning documents point to a March finish.
A quarter of the units, 25 in all, would go to extremely low-income households earning 30% of the area median income. Under 2026 federal limits, that means a ceiling of $21,900 for a single person or $31,100 for a household of four. The developer has promised to hold those apartments for that group for 30 years, with rent backed by KCDC project-based vouchers.
Of the remaining 75 units, 15 would carry a 60% median income cap and 60 would carry a 70% cap. Funding for those apartments comes through Tennessee’s version of the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which trades years of tax credits for keeping rents within reach of lower-income renters.
Drawings show a four-story building shaped like an L, wrapped around a surface parking lot, with one- to three-bedroom units, a fitness room, a dog park, a covered pavilion and shared community space. KCDC has already granted the developer a 20-year payment in lieu of taxes deal that trims the property tax bill to $13,472 a year.
The vote comes as Knoxville tries to close a housing gap estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 units by 2029. Other projects backed by the same city fund include the 96-unit Riverside at Holston, which also landed $750,000.
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